


The Language of Flowers

by heartandseoul (tokyolights), starboybri (starboychoi)



Category: Day6 (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Flowers, Language of Flowers, M/M, Other, Wonpil gives Sungjin hints to their relationship through the flowers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-18
Updated: 2018-06-18
Packaged: 2019-05-25 00:03:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14964792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tokyolights/pseuds/heartandseoul, https://archiveofourown.org/users/starboychoi/pseuds/starboybri
Summary: “I can’t take that! I’m allergic to flowers,” Sungjin spitted out, turning to face Jae who’d been silently encouraging him through the window. “I mean romance, I’m allergic to romance.” Wonpil stared at him. Sungjin stared at the roses. They were a beautiful bunch. Pretty green stems and pale orange petals.“Sungjin, these are just congratulatory?”“Right, hm.” Oh god.





	1. Orange Roses

**Author's Note:**

  * For [teenuviel1227](https://archiveofourown.org/users/teenuviel1227/gifts), [pentagonism](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pentagonism/gifts).



> a gift to teenuviel1227, who always comments very nice things on my DAY6 fics even if they're garbage oof, and pentagonism, my best friend in the entire universe.

The first song that they play is fine. It’s just, midway through, when they’re singing the Burrito-Ito-Ito Song-the shit that Jae comes up with last minute  for performances, god- Sungjin has to sing a verse about burritos and god and whatever else Jae decided to put in the verse to make it as weird as he possibly could. And out of all the seventy people who came to watch them fuck around with a ukulele and an acoustic guitar, one of those in the audience just had to be Kim Wonpil.

Now, Kim Wonpil wasn’t any old somebody. Kim Wonpil was the boy Sungjin’s liked since forever ago. For twelve years to be exact. They were in every class, every school for that matter, together. Sungjin never had the courage to talk to Wonpil either. 

Sungjin forgot the lyrics, stumbling as he tried to find the key again, and turning to Jae way before Jae has to sing again. _To save me_ , Sungjin thought and hoped Jae picked up on his social clues. Which he did, thank god. Jae continued from where Sungjin left off, and hopefully their music teacher put it down as a minor mistake.

Backstage, however, Dowoon did not count it as a minor mistake. He stopped Sungjin backstage, right by the instrument exchange section of the stage. “Yah! Sungjin what was that? That stumble didn’t sound like it should’ve been there!”

“Forgetting is how you remember dear Dowoon,” Sungjin said, nodding at Dowoon. Of course, Dowoon wasn’t buying it: a junior performance major and one of the best lyricists and performers at their school making a mistake like that? Dowoon frowned at him. “Dowoon, I can’t be perfect all the time!”

“But you choked,” he replied, “You lost the key and choked Sungjin. How are we gonna do the main stage in five weeks if you-”

“Yah Dowoon! That main stage is five weeks away,” Jae said, swinging in to save Sungjin from Dowoon’s endless tormenting questions,”It was just the stupid song I wrote about a burrito in five seconds! I didn’t give him time to learn it! It’s not his fault.” Sungjin nodded in agreement, and Dowoon fake pouts.

‘We’re going to fail our final aren’t we?”

“C’mon Jin,” Jae said, leading him away from Dowoon and out of the auditorium through the side doors. Jae’s arm comes to rest upon Sungjin’s shoulder, patting him. “It’s not good to pay attention to your haters. They really bring you down.”

Before the side door closed, Dowoon called after him, “You only know how to play a guitar solo in C major Jae!”

“At least I don’t need an instructor to teach me basics of rhythm anymore!” Jae raised his hand in response. Sungjin hummed along in agreement.

“I saved our asses with that song, you can’t touch me!”

Sungjin piped up. “I can actually, I’m the pro musician here. How many lyrical compositions have you gotten paid for? I’ve composed quite a few-”

“With Brian! Most of them were with Brian, don’t forget your place pleb.”

They’re out of the auditorium now, Sungjin’s eyes adjusting to the light. Was it really not seven? Sungjin swore it was seven pm when he checked. “Was my stumble that bad?”

“I didn’t really notice,” Jae replied, “Just the key change, which I adjusted for. You only went up half a step, Dowoon’s just being a worrywart as always. And I was right beside you too.”

“Yeah but you changed the key after the fact, not before. So it was noticeable.” Jae shrugged, lifting his arm off of Sungjin’s shoulder, leading him right. Sungjin reached out to open the classroom door. “This is our classroom, right?” Jae nodded. “So do you think Wonpil noticed my inner gay panic? Like, I kind of made eye contact before I messed up so what was I supposed to do?”

“Not talk about people standing behind you?” Jae offered, looking at something behind him. Sungjin turned. It was Wonpil.

“Hello?” Wonpil said. Sungjin almost screamed. Almost was the keyword, he had enough dignity (coupled with ten years of bluffing) not to. Instead, Sungjin offered Wonpil a smile, something that remotely felt like a natural muscle movement instead of something painfully forced, like he’d forced the sides of his mouth to move up-rubbery, synthetic. _Uncool_. He turned back to Jae who-

was no longer present. Sungjin looked through the window of the classroom, Jae’s waving at him from inside. Sungjin checked the door handle, it doesn’t budge. Jae’s locked the door on him. He turned back to Wonpil, putting on a smile.

“Hello.”

“Uh hi,” Wonpil shrugged his shoulders, putting his hand on the back of his neck. “I liked your performance. It was interesting and funny.” Sungjin looked at the floor, attempting to avoid eye contact. He’s trying to ignore his heart, beating so loud in his chest that he’s sure Wonpil could hear it. Trying to ignore the possibility of Wonpil saying something he didn’t want to hear.

“Really? It really was a last minute thing. We came up with the song like, three days ago. Anything bad was all Jae.”

“It was good!” Wonpil laughed, nodding at  him, _smiling_ at him. Holy fuck. “I-I got you something. For the performance. Flowers are customary, right?”

Sungjin nodded slowly, because he wasn’t sure-

Wonpil held out a small bouquet of orange roses.

Sungjin stared at it.

“Uh-”

Wonpil smiled at him again. Sungjin bullshitted.

“I can’t take that! I’m allergic to flowers,” Sungjin spitted out, turning to face Jae who’d been silently encouraging him through the window. “I mean romance, I’m allergic to romance.” Wonpil stared at him. Sungjin stared at the roses. They were a beautiful bunch. Pretty green stems and pale orange petals. 

“Sungjin, these are just congratulatory?”

“Right, hm.” Oh god.

Jae saved his ass again, sticking his head out of the door to interrupt whatever was going on. “Hey Jin, we’re taking the group photo. You might wanna come in.”

“Oh,” Wonpil said, looking from Jae to Sungjin and back to Jae. Jae looked at Wonpil, offering his best smile.

“Actually, you two can finish up here. I’ll get Brian to photoshop Sungjin in. Good luck! Get some!”

Jae shut the door and Sungjin’s left staring at the flowers again. He looked up, pointed to the door. “Uh, I gotta go. Thankssomuch.” Sungjin left Wonpil standing with the roses, out in the middle of the hallway, door shut with a quiet clack. Thirty seconds later, Sungjin comes back. Wonpil held out the flowers, mouth cracked open with the semblance of a smile. Sungjin smiles back. “Oops. Sorry. Forgot these. Thanks for coming! I appreciate it.”  Sungjin ran back inside, door slammed shut this time, leaving Wonpil alone in the hall this time.

When Sungjin heard the “Call me sometime!” yelled through the door, he folded and covered his face with his hands.


	2. Blue Roses

Wonpil took a seat beside Jinyoung at his locker the next morning. Jinyoung looked up from his music theory textbook, asking. “What’s up Pil?”

“Sungjin said he fluffed up the key of his song and forgot the lyrics because he saw me in the audience. Then, he told me he’s allergic to flowers, corrected himself in the most painfully cute way, and said romance. Then, directly after that, he accepted my flowers. The orange roses.”

“The ones that mean desire and enthusiasm?”

“Yeah, those are the ones. What am I supposed to take from that?” Jinyoung’s face was the equivalent of the Windows ‘95 startup noise, confused and broken.  Wonpil looked at the ground, gnawing on his lip. “Say the crackhead Jinyoung thing.”

“He accepted your flowers. That’s true love honestly, I think you should go for it,” Jinyoung said, nodding with a stupid puppy dog look on his face. Wonpil considered it. But he frowned. 

“And the AP high schooler Jinyoung thing?”

“He might like you, but might not want to date you.”

Wonpil leant against the locker, sigh almost invisible. “Why?”

“Cause some people are just friendly, that’s all it is. And also, he’s in his junior year right now. Next year he’ll be a senior, and then he’s going to college. He might want to save his relationships for college,” Jinyoung said, putting his a hand on Wonpil’s shoulder and patting it, “But still. You should check your  locker, I think I saw something on it when I came in.”

“Jinyoung you come at like 8:30 am sharp, no one else is here that early!”

“Actually, Mrs. Kim’s junior performance class has their showcase for their finals next month. They’re starting to set up. And they have tri-weekly meetings, Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7:30 am.”

Wonpil looked at him, Jinyoung offered a smile back. “Man, remind me to stop ignoring you at school.” And Wonpil heads off to his locker. 

  
  


There’s a flower stuck with gaffer tape on his locker, the tape they used for the stage. Wonpil was probably thinking way too much into it, but he had a feeling it was from Sungjin. It’s also a blue rose. 

“Does this mean what I think it means,” Wonpil said to Jinyoung during their first period, “It doesn’t right?”

“I don’t know how speak flower,” Jinyoung replied, “You forgot to carry the two. And, according to my good old friend Google, blue roses mean the unobtainable. Well, when you give it to someone it’s like you’re calling them an unrealizable dream. It’s quite romantic actually.”

“Is he trying to say he wants to be with me, but he can’t? Because of family reasons or something?”

“I don’t quite know,” Jinyoung said, flipping over to the next page in their mathbook. He looked at Wonpil. “Honestly, he could’ve also gotten you a flower to get you a flower. I wish Jaebum would do that for me.”

Wonpil thought about the single blue rose all day.


	3. Purple Violets

 

“You got him a flower?” Jae asked, taking the seat across from Sungjin at lunch. They’re in the small cramped hallway, behind the auditorium that they’ve sat at since freshman year. There’s no one else here, so Sungjin assumed Jae’s talking to him.

“Who did what?”

“You dummy,” Jae narrowed his eyes at Sungjin, adjusting his falling glasses as he unwrapped his sandwich with way more force than necessary, “You bought your loverboy blue roses for buying you orange roses?” Jae cut the sandwich in half, continuing to talk. “The orange roses on the shelf above your bed, you’re not slick. I saw your snap.” Jae stuck his half of the half eaten sandwich back in the bag, staring at Sungjin. “In the five years I’ve known you Park Sungjin, I’ve never seen you that bold with Wonpil.”

“They’re simply there to make sure I have good dreams! And to remind me how beautiful and attractive I am,” Sungjin responded, leaning over to grab the half of the sandwich extended out to him. “And before I was just intimidated! That's no excuse. You still haven’t talked to Brian, a guy you’ve claimed to know since you lived in California!”

The two made fun of each other, but it still rang true. Jae was also in the same situation as Sungjin was. 

“Brian’s different! I hardly have classes with him besides Mrs. Kim’s. You have three classes with Wonpil and you’ve known kim for a decade already! You honest to god have no excuse! And anyways, this isn’t about me! You have no lunch because you spent it all on roses for Wonpil, admit it!”  
Sungjin sharply exhaled. 

“It was one flower Jaehyung Park,” Sungjin said. Jae looked at him, Sungjin shoved the piece of sandwich in his mouth. “One.” The bell rang soon after and Sungjin and Jae both went to their respective classes. Jae was right though.

This was the boldest he’d ever been with Wonpil, giving him blue roses like that.

 

On Friday, Sungjin was nearly late for math class. Sungjin ran through the halls, trying to get from a locker jammed all the way in the corner of some abandoned hallway to a class on the other side of the building upstairs. He’s only two minutes late because of one reason.

The two purple violets that were taped to his locker.


	4. Lavender Roses

There are purple roses, lavender to be more precise, hanging off of Wonpil’s locker, stuck with thin pieces of white electrical tape. There’s writing on them that Wonpil can barely make out. He soon makes out a ‘u r gr8!’.

“Okay, he tells me I’m great,” he says to Jaebum. “But the he puts lavender roses on my locker. What does it all mean?”

“Bro you got flowers, it’s true love?” Jaebum tried, “Love isn’t dead?” Wonpil side eyes him, and Jaebum shrugged as he took a bite of his food. “I mean, I’m not as good at this as Jinyoung is, why are you asking me?"

“I know purple means dignity and pride and whatnot,” Nayeon pointed out, “So, maybe he thinks he has enough dignity to carefully reject you so we can move on with club activities, like helping me with my math homework.”

“Nayeon that’s horrible,” Jaebum said, throwing a crumpled tissue at her. Wonpil laughs into his cola and Nayeon scowled at them. 

“I’m kicking you guys out, dick nuggets.”

“You can’t,” Wonpil started. 

“Yeah! This peer mentoring,” Jaebum finished, “We’re the peers. The only reason why it exists is because of us.”

“ _ No _ ,” Nayeon snapped, shoving an algebra handout to Jaebum and Wonpil, “The only reason this exists is for you guys to help me with my homework. Now finish my math problems!”   
  
  


Wonpil and Jinyoung walk home to talk about things. Like they always did. Jinyoung grinned at him, one corner of his mouth raised slightly higher than the other. Jinyoung’s tongue peeked through his teeth. Wonpil kept walking, trying to avoid conversation by shoving his hands deeper into his pockets and not looking at him. That didn’t work all that well. 

“Oh my dear Wonpillie are you gonna ask Sungjin out?” Jinyoung asked. Wonpil frowned at the sidewalk. “You should.”

“Or,” Wonpil said, stopping when they reach the bus station to lean and check for the bus, “People can stop making taping flowers on a locker a big deal. It’s just nice to do.” 

“Listen old fossil, this is the twenty first century. Everyone likes every picture their crush posts on Instagram.” Jinyoung replied, looking Wonpil dead in the eye. Wonpil scoffed at him. 

Jinyoung cracked up first, Wonpil losing it right after, holding out an arm to grab onto Wonpil shoulder. He drew him in closer and laughed into the junction of Wonpil’s neck. Jinyoung slung an arm around Wonpil’s middle and Wonpil let him.

 


	5. An Assortment of Flowers

There are pink peonies on Sungjin’s locker, when he checked in transition from first to second period. It’s a tiny bouquet, no more than eight, but they’re in the shape of a heart with a little note scrawled in Wonpil’s handwriting. 

Sungjin didn’t know what to think. 

His fingers tingle, before he even touched them, when he lifted the tape carefully and placed them on the top shelf of his locker. He took the note and read it. “Sungjin,” it said, “Please tell me I’m not reading your intentions incorrectly.”  He closed his locker and made his way to chemistry. 

His fingers were still tingling. 

  
  


Sungjin came back to his locker the next period and found hyacinth, blue hyacinth, taking the place of the peonies that he’d just removed from the outside of the locker.

This made him smile big and wide. 

  
  


The next day there are three things going on: rehearsal for the final, studying for math finals, and orchestrating the perfect way to tell Wonpil how he felt. 

“Yo dude,” Jae said, leaning over to look at the top shelf of Sungjin’s locker. “Isn’t that kind of unsanitary?”

“I don’t want to throw them out until I figure out how I’m going to tell Wonpil,” Sungjin answered, glancing at the expanding piled of dried, wilted, and dead flowers. There are layers upon layers of dried petals on the floor of his locker as well. He switched out his math book for his music theory book. ‘They’re--you know.”

“Yeah I get it,” Jae poked the wilted flowers with the new lily he got. “Your vague gestures and lack of words tell me everything, but flower mold is a nasty way to go.” 

Sungjin frowned. “They’re from Wonpil, it’s a gift. I don’t want to let them go. It’s nice, they’re nice.”  _ He’s nice _ went unsaid. 

“Still. It’s rotting plants. Kinda gross.”

“Fine, gimme that,” Sungjin said. Jae handed over his plastic bag, once home to a Chinese takeout container and now, home to all the dead flowers Sungjin stored in his locker. Sungjin shoved them in as carefully as he could, bits of petals and leaves brushed off into the bag. 

“So does this mean you’re finally gonna ask him out?” Jae said, in the middle of Sungjin’s rearranging. There's a reason he went ignored. 

Sungjin straightens out the bouquet of red roses, yarrow, and pink calla lilies, and looped the bag on one of the locker hooks. ‘Genius huh?”

“What do the flower mean?”

“Red roses symbolize passion and love, the little yellow things are yarrow. Those symbolize everlasting love and the pink calla lilies symbolize appreciation and admiration.”

Jae took a step back to admire the bouquet, tilting his head left and right. He nodded his head at after a moment’s inspection. “They’re cute man.”

“I so have a career in locker decoration,” Sungjin laughed, nodding at the bouquet before closing the door.  


	6. Ferrero Rocher Bouquet

There are a bunch of dandelions on Wonpil’s locker and they’re all one single color. 

Yellow.

“You’ve granted all my wishes??” Jinyoung said, when Wonpil started picking them off and placing them on his top shelf. 

  
  


The next day, a briar rose is carefully placed on his locker. Wonpil’s careful with it, making sure to not let any of the petals fall while removing it. It’s pink on the edges and yellow in the middle. 

Wonpil kept this one in his pocket this time. 

  
  


At first, Wonpil thought Sungjin didn’t put anything, but when he walked closer, he saw it. 

Jaebum picked the vase from up off the floor, poking the flowers. They were paper this time. “Dude,” Jaebum said, “this boy got you a Ferrero Rocher bouquet? You keep him for the rest of your life, give him slow everything. Maybe even give him the succ-”

“Inappropriate!” Nayeon screamed, shoving the science homework at Jaebum. 

  
  


“What do I even do with aloe vera Jinyoung?”

Jinyoung looked at him and shurgged. “It’s been two weeks, shouldn’t you stop trying to over analyze every plant Sungjin tapes to your locker for it’s hidden meaning?”

“It’s perfectly healthy human behaviour thank you very much,” Wonpil replied, “When your crush gives you the time of day, you overanalyze the details.

“Also, did you or did you not hurt yourself in English today? You got a papercut, and Sungjin has that class with you. I’m pretty sure Sungjin mutilated his aloe vera plant to give you something to help yourself with,” Jinyoung said, “It’s good for healing, remember?” Jaebum grinned at him. Wonpil smiled back. Jinyoung looked away from his textbook to stare at the wall.    
“Okay i  _ guess, _ ” Wonpil replied. But he loved the thought anyway.


End file.
